TEASER ONE & TWO

She’s coming, coming, coming
With a bright smile, coming, coming, coming
Forever towards me, coming, coming, coming
Don’t you know. 

“Can you bring me to this restaurant please?” Seolju asks quickly as she enters the cab, her cellular phone pressed against her ear as the cab starts moving.

“Alright, I got it… yes, I’ll be visiting the both of you tomorrow.” Her nose scrunches up as the voice on the other line starts an commotion.

“I won’t forget, I promise, don’t worry about—” A couple of more shouts from the end of the line which causes Seolju to titter, “No, I won’t bring him, he’s busy anyways. Maybe some other day, but definitely not tomorrow.”

Ending the call with her mother, Seolju began thinking about how any minute now, she would be meeting up with her old friends once again. After graduating high school, she couldn’t find the time to keep in touch with them and she wouldn’t be so overjoyed if her phone bill would be going up again. Though her thoughts only last for a millisecond when she felt a small jab to her rib cage. She turns around to see Jinkyung shaking her head and remarking that they were at their destination.

“I bet most of them are already there, but I highly doubt they’ll notice you,” Jinkyung laughs half heartedly before noting about Seolju’s body, “You look like you've gained weight recently. It’s not because you’re... right?”

That single comment earns Jinkyung a slap on the arm and a dressing-down about respect for others.

“Okay, okay! I’m sorry, oh my God—that hurt!” Her Busan accent emerges and she rubs her arm, mumbling indignantly. Seolju gives her a pointed look and Jinkyung simply sighs, following her out of the cab after paying the driver.

Arpeggio is a quaint restaurant that was in the heart of Seoul and one of those places that made you feel nostalgic just by looking at it. It’s a Parisian themed restaurant with a black-and-white striped canopy hanging over four iron-wrought tables on the outside. Inside, glass-top tables and booths were placed so as to make the interior pleasing to the eye. The sound of acoustic music plays in the background and fades behind the chatter of customers. A particularly long mahogany table with familiar faces from high-school welcomes Seolju and Jinkyung. Exclamations fills the air and some stand up to greet the pair, while others chuckle about their memories that included them.

Seolju slides into a chair next to Jung Eunji, who greets her with her infamous eye smile. Her husband, Seo Inguk, looks at Seolju fondly, like her older brother would. “Did you gain a few pounds, Shim?”

She gives him an irritated look and waves her hand to call over a waiter. “Can you not?”

“Don’t do that, Inguk. I think she might be on that time of month again,” Jinkyung lazily warns.

Eunji eyes Seolju’s body. She wears high-waisted harem suit pants, a loose dark blue blouse tucked in the pants, and a white cardigan. Casually formal, similar to Jinkyung’s cream colored button-up, black skinny jeans, and leather loafers. “Or it could be something else, you know. I remember having mood swings when I was like that.”

“Tch, you always have mood swings, you wench.” Inguk scowls.

Eunji clicks her tongue and crosses her arms whilst eyeing her husband. “This bastard...”

“It’s not, Eunji, I tell you it’s not. If there was, I’d make you babysit and you’re already busy with your daughter,” Seolju points out before the couple started to fight again. She inwardly groans, taking a generous amount of the water the waiter had brought over. She wasn’t pregnant, she wasn't.

Jinkyung narrows her eyes at Seolju. “She’s probably lying. She hit me when I asked her this on the way here.”

“Well,” Eunji starts off mischieviously, “let’s ask her husband then.” Her gaze moves and trains on the approaching six handsome men, all clothed in formal suits, complete with black ties and white collars. They walk in unison and in a confident air that makes heads in Arpeggio turn; the class of 1997 are no exception. Seolju follows Eunji’s gaze and rests her head on her palm, absently staring at the tallest one with blonde hair—her husband—before glancing at the baby-faced boy that happened to be married to Jinkyung. The corner of twitches.

The boys.

I think about you all day long
Even if I’m in the dark for a moment
I’m wandering around, searching for you
I’ve closed in my feelings
When you came to find me and held me
Inside your warm melody
I hear that, never forget you
I’ll be fine, my baby 

Once they reach the table and the greetings die down, the tallest removes his jacket and places it on his chair, then ing his cuffs and rolling his sleeves up to his elbows. He stares at Seolju, who is distractedly spinning her water and he can tell she’s lost in her thoughts. He wonders what’s on her mind. Tapping her with the back of his hand, she looks at him expectantly, taking note of the blemish balm cream he was using on his light skin—he used a bit too much this time, didn’t he? she thinks.

“Seolju, your waist looks bigger,” Yifan deadpans and draws agape. The people around the two of them overhear the statement and go into fits of laughter and amusement. He is known for his straightforwardness and blunt tongue, yet it annoys her to the brink of wanting to pull her dark brown tresses out. In all honesty, she had never been so insulted in her life and the fact that it was coming out of her husband’s mouth had made it ten times more embarrassing.

“No, Kris, I haven’t gained any weight,” she snaps and smacks him on the arm with much force before the words could come out of his mouth, “Nor am I pregnant.” Right?

So that’s what it’s about, Yifan concludes to himself. He rubs the arm Seolju had smacked and a hurtful expression is on his face, “Alright, alright. I got it, there’s no need to use violence.”

Seolju scoffs before replying back bitterly. “You just saw me last night, honestly, I can’t gain weight that quickly.”

Before the couple could bother adding fuel to the fire, the puppy-faced boy—man—across from Jinkyung leans toward the long cloth-topped mahogany table with a small frown on his pink hued lips, “At least Seolju actually likes to have fun in the bed, I’m practically stuck with miss killjoy over here for the rest of my life.”

Jinkyung’s face flushes before shoving the latter across the table, “Don’t push it you rascal.”

Seolju raises her eyebrows. “Excuse you.”

The grown boy ignores Jinkyung’s monotony pleads and Seolju’s comment before continuing, “She truly, truly needs to loosen up a bit. It’s been years now and she still won’t allow us to make a child.”

Jinkyung whines and flails her arms in her seat before pointing a finger at her husband, “You’re exceedingly childish! I told you we’ll have one once you get a well-paying job, but you don’t you lazy idiot! I hope you enjoy sleeping on the couch your mother bought us.”

“The couch?!” He exclaims, leaning across the table, “Not the couch, anything but the couch, honey.”

Cupping his hands together, the grown man juts out his lower lip which causes Jinkyung, and if so, the whole entire table to gag or roll their eyes. Sighing inwardly, Jinkyung bats her eyelashes cutely before turning to her husband, bringing her hand up to slap him upside the head, a scowl forming onto her features. He rubs his face and he furrows his brows as the pain starts setting in.

“You’re thirty-three years old Baekhyun! Selling your cuteness like an immature schoolgirl doesn’t work anymore.”

“I honestly thought it still works, it still does on Jia,” he points out, which makes the Chinese female snort in amusement.

Meng Jia’s tone of voice is sardonic and wryly amused. “It works? I only listen to you when you use your ‘cuteness’ because you stop right afterwards—and your so-called adorability is cringe worthy. Have you learned nothing from Jinkyung over the years?”

Baekhyun sighs in defeat, leans back in his chair, and makes a look to fit his age. Jinkyung grins triumphantly and crescents (which Baekhyun adores without saying so) form in her eyes. He replies, “Fine, you win, woman. I’m not cute anymore. Now can we get food?”

Lee Minki claps his hands once and points at Jinkyung’s husband.

“Thank you.”